DT Swiss 54T Ratchet Kit (And Why it's the Best $100 You'll Spend!) [Video]

 

DT Swiss 54t Star Ratchet Kit

DT Swiss 54t Star Ratchet Kit Overview

The DT Swiss 54T Ratchet kit works as a direct replacement for your stock ratchet. Simply remove the freehub body and swap out the parts included in the kit. Stock DT Swiss hubs come with 18 points of engagement, in a matter of minutes you can upgrade to 54 tooth engagement and drastically improve your climbing. 

  • Compatible with all current DT star ratchet hubs and wheels (180, 240S, 350 and 540 hubs).
  • Includes two star ratchets, two springs, and Molykote grease.

Shop DT Swiss Ratchet Upgrade Kit

 

If you're one strange human and would like to read a transcript of the video above, continue reading below!

sup guys? ever wondered how amazing a 54 tooth ratchet kit might be in your DT Swiss hub? we’ll let you know right now. so typical DT Swiss hub out-of-the-box depending on which model or depending on if you got it on a complete bike or you just bought the hub alone they usually have an 18 teeth ratchet kit inside of them so what that means is how many different engagement points you're gonna get all the way around that circle and the more engagement points the less play, less lag there is before the crank actually engages that wheel and starts driving it forward. so nicer hubs are gonna have more engagement points and this again this is more of a mountain bike thing. in the road bike world where you're worried about drag and resistance that's kind of a little bit different of a deal and the mountain bikes space that's not much of a concern it's more about the engagement. so when you're on those quick climbs and rocks come up or you slip on a root and you need to have that immediate just boom cranks right there chain engages right away that's where a high engagement hub really comes into play and makes a huge difference. so if you've been riding an 18 tooth or something similar maybe on another hub most hubs you know that are moderately priced or below are typically less than 32 or 36 engagement points this kit goes into a number of different DT Swiss hubs and it's got 54 tooth points of engagement so that is like I said reducing that play before it engages and it's it's one of the things you kind of have to experience to believe it and see how nice it really is. so once you get on a bike with one of these and you realize you know you get to that first technical climbing section and how awesome it is that time where you have to backpedal real quickly so you don't hit a rock and you go to push down on the crank and the chain engages right away you'll be hooked and you'll you'll kind of despise riding a bike that doesn't have this or this amount of engagement points after that and 54 I think is a great number because beyond that it's not as big of a difference going from 18 to 54 is a huge difference it's like almost a whole bike it feels like when you're riding that thing especially on technical climbs going from 54 to say 120 which is what an industry 9 hub would have that is it is awesome and there's obviously less play but it's not as noticeable as going from 18 to 54 that's where you're really going to notice that instantaneous engagement that makes a huge difference in the in in just the ride quality of that bike especially on a technical climb.

So when you buy one of these kits here's what they come with: you're gonna get your two ratchets that you need to install in there those are the important pieces you get two springs and some special grease for the for the ratchets you don't actually need anything particularly about the two ratchets those are the most important piece here your hub is already gonna have these two Springs and it's probably gonna be covered in grease and you don't really need that much and this is probably enough of this grease to last you about 500 of these changes what it comes with it this is good grease to have for other reasons as well so when we swap these out we put the new Springs in there anyway when you're taking it apart pay attention these these Springs do kind of taper down so you want to make sure you put the springs in the correct orientation as they came out so you know pull the freehub body off real gently and slowly and pay attention to what orientation the springs are make sure everything's nice and clean in there get a little lubrication on everything and put it all back together that's probably a number of good install videos you can find on it's a pretty simple thing to install and these kits that they sell come with all the necessary parts even the lubrication thank you guys for watching the video I love if you could like subscribe and just check out our channel for other similar content and stay tuned we always make cool videos about mountain bike parts try to answer common questions in the mountain biking world and just talk about the latest and greatest products. but anyways thank you guys for watching I'm gonna go ahead and drink some beer eat some Funyuns and look at pictures of Pamela Anderson.


February 16, 2018

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